Flying with the Fox
by Laira Evans
Summary: Ranma is kicked into the Naruto universe by jealous love-rivals a few months after the failed wedding. Zapped into the Kyuubi's prison, he breaks free with his new blood-thirsty companion to encounter a world very different from his own. Fem Kyuubi, AU
1. Chapter 1

Ranma gets tossed into the Naruto universe by troublesome love-rivals.

Chapter 1:

Fool that he apparently was, Ranma had expected things to cool down after the whole Saffron incident was over – after all, nothing's hotter than a phoenix demi-god, right? He really should have known better during those two months of calm following the failed wedding. Calm-er was one thing, dead calm for two months was quite another. Ryoga, Mousse, and Kuno had all decided that rather than bow down to his awesome superiority and throw in the towel they would instead start training in earnest. Thankfully he'd done the same. After all, a brush with potential death at Jusendo had left him a bit wary that other crazy-powerful supernatural beings might crawl out of the woodwork with an intent to cause him or his friends serious bodily harm. He was willing to bet he was the most powerful human in the world, or near enough, but after being assaulted by the part-dragon Herb and the part-phoenix Saffron he couldn't help but wonder what else was out there. A full-blooded dragon? A rampaging evil kami? An alien with giant laser beams? Who really knew anymore what was possible? The point was, he had to be prepared.

She sighed as rain splattered down, completing her shift from male to female. Now this, this she was prepared for. A drawstring on her pants with a swift tug rendered her Chinese silk pants fit for wear. Her hand swift swung back out as her arms snapped back to flight position, arresting her fall. Yep. After nearly two months of training she'd managed to achieve flight using only her ki. Her black and crimson cape with gold highlights completed her superhero look perfectly in her opinion. Some American had called "very fetching", whatever that meant.

She grimaced as the raincloud wafted away as quickly as it came. Damned kami. Her brief hiding spell in the downpour was over and now the barrage of ki-blasts, weapons, and wind cutters forced her to dodge with increasing effort through the air. 'Well its now or never.' Mouse had given Kuno enchanted glasses that made him think she was still male. If she could just knock them off he'd probably start fighting the other two and give her a chance to escape – and with that new magic sword of his he'd probably even avoid getting knocked out for a minute or two. She certainly hoped so. It was almost as if Nabiki was planning this whole venture. They'd kept her from staying on the ground for more than a few seconds in the all day thanks to that tracking charm of theirs. As she dove towards their smirking faces she couldn't help but wonder if this wasn't a bit too well planned if their goal was simply to beat her up. As the giant butterfly net swung down around her she began to realize the depth of their plans. 'Oh shit.'

"At last, we have caught the vile sorcerer!" cried Kuno.

"Quick Mousse, cast the spell! That net won't hold him for long." Ryoga stubbornly swung in circles, the motion keeping Ranma inside the magically enhanced giant butterfly net.

"Shampoo will finally be mine!" Cutting his finger he brushed it on the ancient scroll before intoning, "Let the prideful one know true despair as he is consigned to the Abyss!"

As light lashed out at her from the scroll Ranma couldn't help thinking that this was one scenario she had not prepared for. Maybe Pops was right and learning to fly had been a frivolous use of her time. Still, it had been pretty awesome while it lasted. 'This is the last time I let Shampoo magically handcuff herself to Akane...'

Fortunately for Ranma the spell had been designed to punish wayward husbands. Neither husband, male, or arguably even unfaithful, it was only natural the spell locked onto a different destination.

* * *

><p>"Wh-where am I?" Hey head felt like it was resting on something fuzzy.<p>

"**Imprisoned, trapped, condemned.**" In a fluid motion Ranma flipped upwards onto her feet, turning, only to fall back under the water. "**Little one, does my visage displease?**" Ranma's jaw slowly cranked itself back into place.

"Uhh, I was actually expecting a dragon, or maybe a phoenix. A kitsune is actually new for me, especially a giant one."

"**A dragon, you say? I wonder, then, how you came to be here, in the cell of the Kyuubi no Kitsune."**

Ranma's eyes darkened. "Just the usual. I was attacked by everyone who knows me." Ranma took a look around at her surroundings. Bars rose to an unseen ceiling, far higher than the kitsune despite its massive size. Tunnels went off to places unknown, their entrances just barely visible from the red-gold glow of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, little drips sounding from their depths. The water that lapped at Ranma's knees felt ever so slightly of oil, tainted and dark. Grimacing she craned her head back towards Kyuubi. "May I sit on your paw? I need to eat something if I'm going to get us out of here, and this sewer water is weirding me out."

"**Do you know nothing of me? This prison was built to hold me until my death, how could you hope to free us?"**

Grabbing a water bottle and sandwich out of Hidden Weapons Space Ranma hopped into a lotus position on top of Kyuubi's paw.

Kyuubi might have crushed her at that moment for the presumption but the girl was certainly intriguing, and Kyuubi had been alone now for quite some time. "**You carry seals?" **If she was truly a seal master perhaps there was a chance-.

"Seals? Na, that was just a little trick I picked up along the way." Kyuubi sighed. "But don't worry about getting out of here, I think I feel a flaw. I doubt whoever built this prison expected someone like me to land in here."

"**And just exactly who are you?" **Surely the child was joking. She'd hardly been here a day, most of that asleep, and she'd already found a flaw in the seal?

"Ranma Saotome, the best martial artist in the world!"

Kyuubi resisted the urge to swat her for resemblance to Naruto. At least she didn't say 'Believe it!' "**Martial artist? Not kunoichi?" **

"Kunoichi? Listen I'm not really into all that crazy ninja stuff. Konatsu has it covered, I wouldn't want to edge him out of the market. Err, this is probably a weird question, but am I still in Japan?"

"**Japan?"**

"Uh, never mind, I'll work it out later." Ranma polished off the last of her sandwich before tossing the empty water bottle into Hidden Weapons Space. "Alright, let's do this!"

"**Wait! If you collapse the prison I'll die."**

Ranma stretched, spine cracking pleasurably. "Don't worry. Just follow my lead and we'll make it out of here." Ranma's aura exploded to half the size of Kyuubi before focusing towards a point only she could see. "Besides, who wants to live forever?"

Previously clear space between the bars became a shimmering plane of force, glow tinting towards purple as cracks began to run along its surface. "**How can this be? Can you really do it?" **Ranma didn't respond, droplets of sweat forming on her forehead. Slipping into hanyou form, currently both female and nude she placed a hand on Ranma's shoulder. Knee length golden tresses were the only thing that covered her form and Ranma faltered for a moment before aligning her gaze once more with her point of attack. Yoki flooded into her from Kyuubi's touch, corrosive and violent and full of bloodlust but oh so powerful. More and more power crashed through Ranma's body as she channeled it into the vibrating barrier. A faded specter of a man appeared for a moment, holding his hand up as if to halt them before everything around them exploded in a wave of crimson.

"You did it!" A woman perhaps twenty years old shouted before hugging her. "I'm finally free of that wretched place!"

"Kyuubi?" Blood and bits of flesh drenched the two of them, the corpse of a young boy at their feet.

"Call me Saya. You know, I've never told a human my name before." Ranma felt a disturbing sensation as Saya's hair brushed the top of her head. It was a testament to her shock that she wasn't flustered by the attractive naked woman pressing against her. Reaching a hand up to probe her scalp she gave a strangled scream. "Oh calm down, they're lovely additions." She drew one finger across their tips, smiling as they twitched. "It's a shame you didn't grow a tail too, but the fox ears will be enough to help me forget you're still mostly human. Nasty monkeys."

Ranma was spared the pain of restarting her brain for a response when a needle formed from ice came hurtling towards her. Catching it without any conscious thought she brought it in front of her to study, finding it out of place with the relative warmth of their surroundings. The fact that a weapon was thrown at her, however, was something she was already quite accustomed to.

"Oh my, it appears we've appeared right in the middle of something, ne?" observed Saya.

Ranma was quite unconcerned at the moment with the temporarily halted combatants staring at her. "Y-you didn't tell me the we were inside of a person!" she spluttered.

"Would it have changed anything?" Ranma's chin tilted into her chest. She wasn't sure. Trapped and starving she suspected she could have brought herself to do the deed regardless.

"Naruto!" A grief stricken cry came from outside the panes of ice that formed a broken dome around the pair. Only a coughing gasp came from the second boy lying on the ground them. Ranma turned from that unseen girl hidden in the mists towards the boy. Not yet a corpse he nonetheless looked much the worse for wear. Still, none of the needles appeared to have stricken vital organs, and with bleeding minimal there was a good chance he would recover.

"Who or what are you?" called a girl (?) from inside one of the ice panels. Ranma's Konatsu meter was registering a nine, even as she bristled at the question.

"Leave them, Haku." Two men appeared from the mist, twenty feet between them. The one who had spoken carried a massive sword, while the other had gray hair and nearly the entirety of his face covered.

The one-eyed man didn't even glance at the other as he spoke. "You would leave me to fight alone, Zabuza? Even someone not of Konoha should recognize that yoki, the Kyuubi no Kitsune. It's still weak, this could be our only chance."

Zabuza laughed. "Her power is rising by the moment." He leveled his sword on his shoulder. "Come, Haku. The Wave Country is already lost."

"I never thought you a coward, Zabuza," said Kakashi softly as Haku retreated from the ice panels, hoping he could work off the man's pride, if nothing else.

Zabuza and Haku merely faded back into the mist, not even attempting to close with their target now guarded only by the panic-stricken Sakura. "You've already made my list, Kakashi. If you live, we shall fight again, I promise you that."

Ranma studied Saya as the ice panels began to melt around them, the two power signatures of Haku and Zabuza now completely gone from her radar. "Saya, what did you do to make them so afraid of you?"

End Chapter 1.

Well. That was fun. Please be kind, it's my first fanfic. Haku lives! Though considering the likelihood of him (?) re-entering the plot any time soon it's not all that different from Haku dying... The name Saya was a shoutout to Blood+ by the way, though her personality will likely be closer to Diva's or Riful from Claymore. Anyways, please R&R, my job doesn't pay well and well-crafted reviews are better than funnel-cake. P.S. Rated T or M?


	2. Chapter 2

_"Saya, what did you do to make them so afraid of you?"_

* * *

><p>Ranma felt something breaking inside her as she watched Saya clean her lips of blood with her tongue. The kitsune had kept her from drowning while unconscious, had been a fellow prisoner in that terrible place. Had she made a mistake? Surely anyone would have done what she had, they couldn't fault her for wanting to be free...<p>

"Sasuke! Naruto!" A young pink-haired girl in a cheongsam appeared out of the dispersing mist, held back by Kakashi from rushing to their side. "You killed them, how could you kill them!" The girl started to say something more but choked, sobbing as she collapsed to the ground, Kakashi making no move to catch her. Ranma fell to her knees, hands shaking and limp at her sides.

Kakashi moved his hand towards the coverings on his face. "Too late," whispered Saya sensually in his ear as she pulled her claw-tipped fingers out of his heart. Grabbing a kunai from the folds of his shirt she flicked it into Sasuke's throat before Ranma could shock his muscles into moving. "Feh, Sharingan. Humans always try to control us, but now there will be a reckoning. Now there will be vengeance."

Ranma bones creaked from the abuse as she shot off faster than she ever had before. Stone blocks shattered, exploding into a cone of gravel behind her as she shot past the curious Kyuubi. Tackling the white-eyed kunoichi over the bridge with force enough to bruise she flipped her onto her back before taking flight position, arms spread wide. Saya frowned as they failed to continue to fall, noting Sakura recovering enough to grip tightly to her savior. As they curved upwards and inwards towards the mainland she changed back to her normal form. Still not a tenth her true size she jumped across the gap remaining in the uncompleted bridge before starting in on an easy lope. From time to time she would knock a tree down into the human-built path, pretending it was an enemy. She would return to the Land of Fire to rest and recover, the land whose chi nurtured her more than any other. And then, she would find her savior.

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry about all this," whispered Ranma. Ranma scrubbed vigorously at her skin, cupping water with her hands out of the chill spring-fed stream to splash her face. With dead eyes the twelve or thirteen year old girl scrubbed at her exposed skin a small ways upstream of her. She had yet to speak a word since they'd left the bridge. The pink-haired girl turned away from her, curling up next to a tree. She needed a comforting touch, but not from her. Briefly shifting the water bottle out of Weapons Space to refill it before replacing it amongst her small stash of Evangelion manga and figurines, her only possessions in the world besides the clothes she was wearing. "I'm Ranma Saotome. Do you mind telling me your name?" No response. "Maybe where you live? The least I can do is take you home before I..." <em>'Before I what? Search for a way home? Continue my fruitless quest for a cure? Try and convince myself that life is fair?'<em>

_ "_Take you home? You want to kill my parents too? Haven't you done enough to me already?" Her voice cracked as their eyes met. Tear tracks sketched pale lines down her blood-tinged cheek. Ranma dipped into the Soul of Ice to ward off the pain that struck her heart. During their desperate flight this mere child had had to suffer the taint of her comrade's blood, still wet on Ranma's skin. Ninja or not, that wasn't something any child should have to go through.

"I would never do that. Please, believe me, this was all an accident, I never meant for any of this to happen." The girls' condescending glare made Ranma feel like an insect, despite the kunoichi being six years her junior. Ranma turned back to the stream, carefully washing the filth from her sensitive new fox ears. Her normal ears were disturbingly absent. Digging a small hole in the stream she waited for the silt to settle before dropping her now unbound hair into the small pool, fingers raking at the tangles.

"My name is Sakura Haruno, and if you're still able to fly we might be able to sleep inside tonight."

"Uh, yeah, sure. Didn't think you were fond of flying." Ranma was a little surprised at the sudden change, the girl's voice was almost sweet as if looking for a friend. Still, it would hardly be Ranma's first experience with the rapidly shifting emotions of women.

"I'll be fine, let's go." A less than stellar takeoff from the soft ground by the stream's edge flecked the two of them with mud but after a few wobbles in the air as Ranma adjusted Sakura's weight they were off. Massive trees seemed to be the norm as Sakura directed her across the green expanse. What few villagers were on the road were the size of little army men as they flew hundreds of feet above the ground.

"Impressive," said Ranma as they finally began to descend.

"Those are the four Hokages of Konoha. You can set me down at the tower that stands in front of them, that's where my parents work."

Ranma was glad for the break. Having a passenger meant more weight and more wind resistance. At this point her ki was even lower than it had been upon first arriving in Nerima. Swooping down she landed with a grunt, Sakura leaping away to land nimbly on her feet. A pirckle of danger washed over Ranma, startling away her exhaustion as she spun in place, searching for the threat. "ANBU, arrest her, she's a kitsune!" cried Sakura.

"Sakura?" Her throat felt dry enough to bleed. '_Yet again, a friend betrays me?'_ Four animal-masked sword wielders drew her eyes even as a boot impacted her throat from the side. Slamming into the stone tower she gasped, trying to catch a breath. '_No matter where I go, life stays the same.' _A pressure-point strike by a strange milk-eyed man darted towards her neck too quickly to dodge and darkness took her...

* * *

><p>Ranma awoke in an empty cell, neither bed nor window marring its grim perfection. Steel bars carved with runes of some sort blocked off one side of the five by five cube. For one Ranma was glad to be 4'11". The only imperfection in stone walls appeared to be a small rectangular hole near the back corner. From the smell there was unfortunately no mistaking its purpose. "Out of one prison and into another." Her voice echoed eerily, only to be superseded by a masculine scream at the end of the hallway. Ranma grabbed the bars in order to tilt her head out for a view but was flung back by a pulse of electricity. She stuck her smarting fingers in her mouth, fishing her water and the first Evangelion manga book out of Weapons Space. Settling in for a long wait to allow her ki to recover as much as it could without food she did her best not to think about what would make someone scream loud enough to rip their vocal cords. '<em>I wonder what the cost will be to break free this time.'<em>

|:End Chapter 2:|

Well... not how I originally intended to go with this fic, but considering I originally intended either a romp or a Naruto gang +1 format that's probably a good thing. After all the support I got first chapter I thought I'd try and set up an actual plot (rare in crossovers, I know). I nearly brought Naruto back to life but decided that would be a cop out. I've got next week free so after I spend today and tomorrow watching through Naruto episodes to make sure I get the imagery right there should be several chapters (longer than this, hopefully) coming out shortly. Please continue to comment, they're more nutritious than the Ramen noodles I live off of.

P.S. Everyone knows what a kunoichi is, right? P.P.S. To "John": I realize Kurama is Kyuubi's canon name, but it happens to not be very feminine sounding, thus the change to Saya.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Naruto and Ranma ½ fanfiction

Chapter 3:

'_I wonder what the cost will be to break free this time.'_

* * *

><p>Hours passed. Pages flipped slowly, mind only have on the content of the manga book. Her left hand traced the floor, seeking that elusive breaking point in the stone. '<em>Maybe Ryoga is smarter than I give him credit for.' <em>The so-called breaking point wasn't actually a single point at all, but a web of chi channels that grew harder to grasp with her mind as the amount of stone she sought to break grew larger. _'How could he crack entire boulders, and while they were moving no less? There's no way he could do it consciously, he must be some sort of savant.' _She calmed herself, the hair-thick thread of ki she was using to test the rock threatening to shatter the rock and alert her captors. '_Where are they anyways? You'd think they'd forgotten about me or something in here.'_ The strange pressure that dogged her inside the cell threatened to crush her ki again but slid off as she slid back into her father's Umi-Sen Ken stance. Her ki drawn inside her carefully, whatever strange binding existed in this cell for her power slipped off once more.

Footsteps. "I know you're there." It was a woman's voice, light and full of laughter but carrying a sharp edge. "You don't want to play with Anko? I can feel you breathing, little fox, every little wisp of air." Anko felt her eyes continually shift past the same spot in the cell. It didn't feel like genjutsu, it was almost as if the kitsune was half out of sync with the world around her. '_Did she overpower the wards or does this ability not use chakra?'_

Ranma let herself drop back into visibility, releasing the tight hold on her emotions. "Hi."

'_No way, how did she get her hands on a book? I searched every inch of her cute little body before dropping her in here.' "_Sakura has told me a number of things about you."

Ranma's brow furrowed. "Has she? She lied enough to me that I'm not sure you should believe her."

"She's a kunoichi. If you expected honesty from an enemy you're younger than I thought." Anko tilted her head, wondering how quickly kitsune matured. "Is the Kyuubi your," she fumbled for a moment, half disbelieving Sakura's claim concerning the Kyuubi no Kitsune's sex, "mother? Were you born inside the seal?"

"Saya? No way, I didn't even meet her 'til yesterday." Ranma slipped her manga back inside Weapons Space, catching Anko's blink with a smirk. "Listen, how about we skip this whole torture business and let me out of here. I betcha there's a miso soup in this village with my name on it."

"Hmm," Anko's raised a finger to her lips, "no."

Ranma began a series of intense stretches, grimacing at the feeling of blood-encrusted fabrics. '_They probably wouldn't have let me keep them if they were clean.'_ Carefully she weighed the power coming from Anko. It was strange, foreign. Whatever it was, she had a lot of it, and ninjas were annoying even without super-powered tricks. "You know, I will get out of here."

"So confident?" Anko herself was feeling increasingly less so. '_Maybe letting Ibiki handle this one wouldn't be such a bad idea.'_

"I've earned my confidence. I have to believe in my abilities, because it's been a long time since I've had anything else." Ranma placed her hand on the wall, inches from the bars. "It would be best if you let me go peaceably. I have no desire to hurt you, but I will defend myself if attacked." Anko fingered a kunai, but her response to the threat proved drastically insufficient as half the wall exploded before her eyes. By the time she finished batting away the larger rock splinters from impacting her face the Ranma was already rounding the corner of hallway.

'Shit.' She ran for the opposite staircase as quickly as her feet could take her. With luck she could have the exit sealed off with Jounin before the girl reached the surface.

* * *

><p>Two pulses of ki took out a pair of guards, the concussive force of the Moko Takabisha carrying them straight through the half open door. Ranma leapt from wall to wall dodging the kunai thrown from behind her before flying headfirst through the doorway. Not bothering with the stairs she jumped straight up the center of the staircase, ki flaring as she propelled herself higher and higher. There was no time for subtlety. With one hand she punched into the ceiling, gripping the jagged rock for a handhold as her other delved with ki into the stone. Five seconds later the stone exploded, cutting at her skin and destroying her handhold. An exhaustive pulse of ki forced her straight upwards even as it destroyed part of the stairwell below her. Her feet gripping either side of the vertical cavern she forced another pulse of ki into the breaking point of the stone above her. The guards were nearing and there was still no sign of daylight. '<em>Again!'<em> The stone cut deeper this time, ricocheting all around her, but a tiny window peaked at her from above. Not bothering with the time-consuming breaking point her fist thrust straight into the rock, widening the hole. Emerging as if from her own grave she emerged into a crowded street. What few eyes were not on her turned in surprise as flames rose from her recently abandoned escape shaft. '_This is shaping up to be lovely. Remind me I let her goad me?' _

"Surrender yourself!" Any possibility of flying out was dashed as numerous figures appeared on the roofs around her. Citizens took this as a clue to flee in all directions. '_You've got to be kidding me, they have that many people capable of roof-hopping?' _Ranma took a step back as a soot-covered man crawled from the hole beside her but forced herself to make no other movement. '_If I could just get out of sight for a moment and grab a change of clothes I could find some hot water and get out of here.' _A red-eyed kunoichi approached her. "There's no way out. You don't want to fight us." Ranma felt something slip over her mind. In a panic her ki aura burst into visibility as it forced off that greasy touch on her mind, drenching the street in purple light before shifting to yellow as a hail of shuriken and kunai cut towards her. This, at least,she was familiar with. The battle began to heat up, quite literally as techniques came flying faster and faster. She would teach them that it paid to learn something more than flashy flame techniques. '_Not that I'm jealous or anything.'_

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" The flames that continued to follow her fed the whirlwind further as she road it higher and higher. '_I wonder how many of think I plan on coming back down?' _She gave her first laugh in this world as she watched the foolish ninja stare upwards at her, wondering what to do. Higher than the Hokage monument she took a breath of fresh air as she glided towards a neighboring forest. On an impulse she ripped off all but her boxers, letting them flutter to the ground below her. The movement had cost her a little height but she still had plenty of space between her and the village below. Passing over the wall she let herself angle downwards, picking up speed. She screamed in delight as the wind ripped at her with physical force, streaming her shoulder-length hair out behind her. The sight of the fence surrounding the woods made no impact on her psyche as she alighted in the flowering upper branches of a sakura tree. "Finally free."

* * *

><p>The Hokage steepled his hands as he stared at the slightly crazed Jounin before him. There was no help for it. The mission had to be completed as quickly and possible and this green-clad man was nothing if not that. Amazingly, he had risen to the top of a small list of people strong enough to deal with any missing-nin they might come across and any casual abuse that might come from the targets. With luck, he wouldn't be gone long enough to hurt the defense capabilities of Konoha. "Maito Gai, do you understand the urgency of the mission? Jiraiya and Tsunade must return to the village before the Kyuubi no Kitsune recovers its full power."<p>

"By the burning passion that fills my heart I shall find them before the week ends!" Gai struck a pose. "Will my students' flames of youth will be nurtured in my absence?"

Sarutobi unsuccessfully fought off a headache. "Of course." He fingered the letter he had drafted to Sakura's parents, informing them of a long term mission for Kakashi's team that would keep her away from Konoha for some time. "Gai, do not forget, you must tell no one but them that Naruto has died. The panic the news could cause Konoha would be... unpleasant."

"And what of the kitsune-girl, Ranma?"

"For now she's just an annoyance. Ibiki will handle her."

Meanwhile, Ranma roasted a curiously well-toothed super-racoon over a fire as she let herself drift beneath the surface of a pond beside her campsite. She closed her eyes, muscles relaxing for the first time in days...

End Chapter 3:

Wow, a chapter without a death! Not counting the toothy super-racoon or anything off screen, of course. Ranma really does attract the psycho admirers, ne? Anko and Saya, who will be next to join Ranma's bloodthirsty pseudo-harem. And of course the big question: For balance, if Ranma keeps attracting girls while in girl form, will he attract guys in guy form? P.S. 5000 words in like 3-4 days, yay!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

_Meanwhile, Ranma roasted a curiously well-toothed super-racoon over a fire as she let herself drift beneath the surface of a pond beside her campsite. She closed her eyes, muscles relaxing for the first time in days..._

* * *

><p>A crocodile eased up behind her, ending her meditative trance beneath the water. A punch to its snout scared it off but the peaceful spell had dissipated. Lifting herself from the water she squeezed the water out of her hair and snatched her meal off the spit. Not bothering to sit down she tore into it ravenously, the flavor like heaven on her tongue for all that it was unseasoned. Tossing the remains to the lurking crocodile she jumped backwards in a ki-assisted glide to land back in the center of the pond. Scrubbing the last of the grease from her face she absentmindedly kicked aside a giant toad on her way to shore. "Oye!"<p>

Ranma's head ratcheted to the left. '_Did that toad just talk?'_ A man's giggle came from the bushes. Ranma's eyes widened as she dropped herself back to her neck in the water. "Hey, show yourself you pervert!" Normally Ranma wasn't the most bashful of girls when it came to showing her chest, but now that she'd noticed him the sheer level of perversion would have had her hiding behind a lead wall if she hadn't had dealings with Happosai. Her estimate of the man was confirmed as his long, spiked white hair emerged into the evening light. After all, if teenage boys were bad, old men were unfortunately worse. The lighting wasn't great but she noticed a pair of red lines beneath his eyes. '_Wait... is he drawing something?' _She had to restrain herself from firing at the notebook. He'd probably think she was attacking him, and justified or not she already had enough enemies in this dimension.

His introduction was not what she expected. "Have you not heard of me? I am no ordinary pervert, I am the legendary super-pervert Jiraiya the Toad Sage. Would you like an autographed copy of Icha Icha Paradise?" He held out the copy, just far enough away that she'd have to come out of the water to grab it, not that she wanted it in the first place.

"What? No! Go away before I beat you up!"

Jiraiya calmly placed the erotic novel back into a pocket. "My lady, are you aware you have fox ears?"

"What's it to you?" Ranma's toes dug through the mud, searching for a firm grip if she had to fight.

"I think it would be best if I brought you to Konoha." The humor in his voice was rapidly draining away.

"You're awfully blunt, aren't you? I almost think I prefer it to when Sakura tricked me and landed me in prison." A ball of ki formed on her hand, as of yet unreleased. "I'm not going back to that cell, old man."

"Gamakichi, grab her." A tongue flew out from the talking toad, wrapping around her knees. Ranma swung her arms in an attempt at vacuum blades but the water slowed her and stole their cutting edge.

"Mouko Takabisha!" The pulse flew at its head but missed as it darted underwater. Jiraiya merely looked on, doing nothing for the moment as Ranma struggled against the slimy tongue's grip. As she lost her purchase on the ground she flopped backwards underwater. Anger flared before cooling to sharp steel. '_Don't look down on me!'_ She dropped into the Soul of Ice, a barely perceptible smirk forming as the toad's tongue drew back as if burned. Leaping skywards the water crystallized into a milky ice-exoskeleton around her body, cracking at the joints as she turned in the air. Ice crunched underfoot as she came down, landing on the miniature glacier that had formed in her wake. A quick pulse of ki shattered the ice from her face, leaving her staring soullessly at the toad sage like a deadly doll.

"Not bad." Power flared as he bit his hand. A brief stab of panic penetrated Ranma's Soul of Ice as she began to understand the extent of this man's power. '_Is there anyone normal in this universe? If things were a little less deadly I might actually enjoy this place' _Bending her knees she prepared to spring into the air for another quick escape. "Toad Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind!"

Walls of flesh red flesh surrounded her, tendrils springing from the floor, twining around her feet. Kicking free of their creeping embrace she jumped to the ceiling only to be met with a renewed attack. Balls of flame struck her even as she freed herself, blasting her down the stomach of the beast. Her Soul of Ice was wavering but she had weathered that first attack well, though much of her icy armor had been stripped away, leaving her stomach bare to the world. Rolling as she landed she let her ki burn through her feet. Hovering in the center of the esophagus her eyes began to glow with fury as she unleashed wave after wave of vacuum blades at Jiraiya and any tendril that came near her. Fiery-hot blood dripped from the ceiling, traveling inches from her skin as she tilted herself in between the drops. Smoke cleared from where Jiraiya had stood to reveal him... utterly unharmed. "Why won't you just let me go!" A pair of shuriken spun towards her, which she immediately caught and flung back at him. Batting them aside casually with a kunai he seemed almost disappointed. Her mind, adept at tactics and honed to a knife's edge in combat was now floundering as she desperately sought for some way to turn the battle in her favor. Her ki had already dropped below fifty percent and hovering like this would have her drained soon enough even if she wasn't battling. "Jiraiya, can you do something for me?"

He paused, curious. "What?"

"If I don't survive this, tell Sakura I'm sorry, and that I forgive her." Before Jiraiya could discern what suicidal technique the sexy fox-eared girl was planning to use she was gone, blinking into non-existence.

* * *

><p>"Wow," she whispered. '<em>So this is what the inside of Weapons Space looks like." <em>Sitting weightlessly in a bubble Ranma watched entranced as a planet that looked very similar to Earth spun slowly below her. Three-fourths of what she could say lay in shadow but the sight was still breathtaking. Her bottle of water and manga books careened around the small space of the bubble thanks to her sudden arrival, but proved insufficient distraction to keep her from watching the clouds dance beneath her godlike perch in the sky. '_Could it be possible?'_ "If I broke the bubble and flew down there would I find myself right back in modern Japan? Could it be that easy?" Easy, of course, was a relative thing. She recognized that the vacuum and distance the journey presented would be a difficult thing to overcome. Still, it meant that if she worked hard to get stronger she could still try and go back if she chose to. '_Maybe I could hijack a space station.' _It wasn't much, but with just this much she was feeling better. Nerima might not be the nicest place but if things didn't change in this crazy ninja place she might take a shot at being the first martial artist to fly through space.

"_CraACK" _The sound exploded in Ranma's eardrums as the bubble began to split. '_K'so he's probably still waiting for me out there, I need to stay in here a bit longer.' _Another web of fractures started on the planet-side portion of the bubble, fraying further at Ranma's nerves. '_What happens when the bubble breaks? Do I go back to where I was or do I get launched into airless space?' _She wasn't willing to chance it. Performing her normal release on the Hidden Weapons Space she sighed in relief as it opened as normal. Glancing backwards as she shot out with a flare of ki she held the window open a second longer, watching as the fractures retreated across the bubble. Letting the window fade she felt confident her ki was once more feeding into her Weapons Space properly again, restoring the damage.

"Focus!" She slapped herself on the cheek. Looking around she didn't see any sign of the super-pervert, and her surroundings were back to normal. Brushing the remaining ice off her skin she walked back to the fire pit. Somehow or another it had gotten smothered during the fight. Moving her hand towards the ashes she hoped there were still enough embers to boil some water.

In disbelief she finally dug her hand directly into the pile of ashes. "This is really weird." Sun shined on her bare back, driving away her skin's chill too slowly for her liking. "And since when is it it noon!" Her blank-eyed stare did its best to drill its way into the ground, unbroken even as her foot swung out to knock a charging crocodile back into the pond. '_I guess it forgot I was off limits. Exactly how long have I been gone!'_

End Chapter 4:

Translation k'so means kuso means... well, you can guess.

Because Naruto is built for time skips, am I right? I assume no fans of super-powered Ranma are upset that Jiraiya beat him? He is rather formidable in his own right, so it's not like I'm placing Ranma at Genin level or lower as I've seen a couple fics do. P.S. I don't think Ranma will ever acquire Chakra. Ki really doesn't seem to have an exact counterpart in Narutoverse, and for all that crossovers generally put it as being one half of Chakra, it honestly seems like ki in Ranmaverse is relatively complete in itself. And to give Ranma chakra is basically just to pave over most of his problems. He'll definitely pick up a few new ki-adapted skills of his own making but he won't be Ranma of the 1000 jutsus. P.S. Next chapter features MALE Ranma, oh my! P.P.S. 1 croc = the time necessary to forget your face. 10,000 crocs until the Croc-king of Peter Pan world comes to conquer the world for Croc-kind. Someone who knows something about crocs post the time equivalent for a 1 croc in a review please for reference.


	5. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: _Whoever thought in a review that Ranma was back in the Kuno mansion because of the crocodile... not true... Crocodiles are everywhere... including your bathtub and local pool.

_Chapter 5: _

_'Exactly how long have I been gone!'_

* * *

><p>Annoyed but determined Ranma set about rebuilding her fire. Spinning the stick at superhuman speeds the tinder soon caught fire, licking at small twigs before they too lit up. Too impatient to go searching for a bowl-shaped stone she quickly felled a sapling. A few hits over her knee and she was in business, a large dent in the middle of it to be filled with water. Eying the lurking crocodile with a warning glare as she filled the makeshift bowl she gladly laid back in the sand after setting the bowl just inside the edge of the fire. Given how small the opening in the canopy was this glimpse of sun wouldn't last long, but for a a little while she could pretend she was just visiting the beach. "That's weird." She sat up, trying to track the feeling. It felt like someone was watching her. It didn't feel like there was anyone close to her but there were three people and a dog heading her way fast. A bug briefly landed on the back of her neck before she swiftly flicked it into oblivion. "Come on, come on!" she willed the water to heat faster. She felt her ears twitch towards tiny thumps as the trio skillfully jumped from branch to branch amongst the four-hundred feet tall titanic trees. Not daring to wait any longer she snatched the slightly charred wooden bowl from the fire and doused herself, breathing a sigh of relief as she felt the change wash over her body.<p>

The sudden shift as his fox ears shifted and shrank back to normal human ones was nearly enough to distract him – but not quite. Dodging a pair of shuriken and catching a third as it curved in behind him he calmly began trimming his overgrown fingernails. Inside, however, he was somewhat less calm. There had always been slight differences between his two forms, besides the obvious. Certain foods tasted different, chocolate ice cream being the most notorious. How things felt on his skin, how certain things – and people, oddly enough – smelled, and so forth. This, however, was quite different. Rather than just a change, it almost seemed like a lessening. It felt traitorous, but though he was finally in his birth form it felt like a little life had leached out of the world. Finishing his trimming he deflected a kunai with a bit of paper attached to it, only mildly surprised to feel the explosion behind him. '_Mousse was far more inventive with his weaponry, though I'm still not sure about that time he pulled out a feather duster, even if it did end up working for a moment or two.' _A bug brought him out of his musing as it tripped his danger sense. Impaling it into a tree with his borrowed shuriken he danced back as a boy with a puppy on his head came at him with passable form. Dodging strikes that were vaguely reminiscent of Ryoga's style Ranma noticed something else about the boy, not including that he had a bit of a mouth on him and that by the girl's shout of concern his name was Kiba. "Anything Goes Disrobing Technique!" The trio fighting Ranma were dumfounded as Kiba's pants, shirt, and hooded jacket made their way onto Ranma.

"Who makes a crazy jutsu like that!" shouted Kiba.

"Err, the perverted old letch who founded Anything Goes Martial Arts?" '_I guess I did learn something from Happosai after all, besides my three sizes...' _"Listen, you're probably just having a bad day, so think of me taking your clothes as a favor to help you cool off. I'll give them back to you later, no worries!" Catching Kiba off guard he clapped him on the shoulder, spinning him so his back was facing him. A quick wedgie and Ranma was off, racing for all he was worth as he listened to the boy shriek in outrage behind him. '_This was a good thing. I bet if I had gotten Ryoga to loosen up a bit when he was younger things wouldn't have turned out as they did.'_ Ranma subconsciously ignored the potential of this approach backfiring. They had attacked him for no reason, after all.

Ranma slapped his face as he felt the life signatures around him in the forest. Besides a number of monstrous creatures there was a fair number of humans. Given that a few had half hidden themselves from his senses he couldn't be sure there weren't some number more capable of hiding themselves completely. '_Alright, the mission begins.'_ All he had to do was get to Konoha without revealing who he was by flying or encountering cold water, find a job, a place to live that was dirt under the open sky, and something tasty to eat. Some knowledge about all this ninja business wouldn't be bad either...

* * *

><p>"Stupid boy-girl fox thing," yelled Kiba as he put on a spare pair of pants, "even his scent stinks of it."<p>

"Attacking someone who could confuse the Byagukan was foolish, even if they were alone," said Shino.

"M-maybe we should tell the proctor," suggested Hinata Hyuuga.

"It's probably a Jounin just screwing with us. Maybe even the Hokage if some of the things Naruto says are true. Besides, that Anko bitch is crazy, she'd probably try and disqualify us."

"It would be best not to talk about the Hokage giving you a wedgie where the ANBU can hear you, Kiba," said Shino. His teammates stared at him curiously as Kiba tried to decide if he should be angry or not. '_Did Shino just tell a joke?' "_Regardless," continued Shino, "when the second test ends we must inform Kurenai-sensei of what occurred."

* * *

><p>Sarutobi, Hokage of Konoha, was in a foul mood. This was little ameliorated by the smoke seeping into his lungs from his lit pipe as he dwelled on the latest proceedings. In an odd twist of fate Jiraiya had appeared of his own will two weeks ago, bearing news of Ranma, their tornado-summoning escapee. In a possibly suicidal technique the girl had somehow managed to escape a summoning that Jiraiya had long declared inescapable. Having a potential hostage against the Kyuubi's wrath escape twice from Konoha's grasp was bad enough, but that was perhaps not the worst of things. Jiraiya had been rather displeased with his handling of Naruto's death, the secluding of Sakura, and the nondisclosure of the Kyuubi's escape to more than the privileged few. He understood the necessity, but he was upset nonetheless, and while he had promised to make his presence known should the Kyuubi no Kitsune begin attacking he had refused any active role in the town's administration. As of yet Maito Gai had not returned with Tsunade, and while the village's defenses were none worsened by his absence thanks to the subtle withdrawing of ninjas on long term missions into the village, things were at a crossroads. If the Chuunin Exam went poorly, Konoha's illusion of strength amongst the hidden villages would likely fall to pieces. If that happened, they'd be facing attacks from foreign ninja as well as the nine-tailed fox within the month. Gravely considering the absence of several status reports from border villages in the Land of Fire Sarutobi couldn't help but wonder if it was happening already.<p>

* * *

><p>Dressed like x-rated Red Riding Hood, Saya made her way into the next little hamlet on her path. Walking up to the first man who stared at her she clutched her cloak close, making sure her ears and claws were hidden. Her head remained slightly bowed to hide her teeth. "Have you seen a short red-headed girl pass through here? Her name was Ranma Saotome." After a few issues at her previous stops she had stopped mentioning the fox ears, or leaving her own bare. Human's didn't seem to take such things kindly.<p>

The man managed to snap his gaze back up to her face, his interest in her slightly shifting to fear as he noticed her vertically slitted pupils. "Ah, no miss, haven't seen anyone with red hair around here."

"Oh." She tossed her cloak behind her, now quite naked. "Alright then." The wood houses burned beautifully, flames ticking her as she danced in her true form. The screams played poor counterpoint her footsteps and the crackling timbers. '_It's a shame they always die before I can train them properly.'_

**End Chapter 5:**

Err, not exactly how I thought I'd write that chapter but I think it turned out well enough. By the way, any thoughts on whether Orichmaru would be interested in Neji's body, and could he deal with the caged bird seal? Frankly I'm still working on the canon series, so most of my knowledge of Naruto comes from fanfics. Also, unfortunately, due to the number of vetoes it seems we will not have Gaara become a one-sided love interest for Ranma's guy form. Shame, would'a followed the theme of bloodthirsty characters lusting after Ranma. Also, to answer a reviews question of how Saya knew Kakashi and Sasuke had the Sharingan in the first chapter, she was able to look through Naruto's eyes occasionally during his life, though she couldn't influence his actions.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Naruto is indeed dead. However, as of the moment very few people know this. As stated by the Hokage a cover story has been put in place and Sakura is being kept from the public eye. Also, a note on the Kiba/Hinata/Shino scene last chapter, yes they did see the transformation. The Byakugan (which I misspelled as byaguken last chapter) is a trait of the Hyuugas which essentially allows vision in all directions around the user (distance varies) and even allows sight through solid objects, thus allowing Hinata Hyuuga to see Ranma's transformation when he thought they were out of range. Hope that clears up the confusion.

Chapter 6:

Traveling through the tree branches (it seemed to be common practice here) Ranma paused, allowing another group to pass him by. For some reason or another the woods were rife with ninjas, though they didn't seem to be hunting him per se. One encounter between two groups of three had been vicious enough that he had nearly intervened. The scuffle had only ended when one team had passed over a scroll, leaving the other group to go gallivanting off into the trees once more, scroll in hand. Well, not his problem. Picking up speed as he reached the forest's edge a solid leap carried him far beyond the fence surrounding the woods.

Feeling someone's eyes on him he turned in midair to see a woman eating dango. "Anko?" Her eyes narrowed. '_Frikk, I didn't mean to say that out loud.' _As proof that ninja's weren't entirely lacking in strange weaponry Ranma was forced to dodge midair as a dango skewer sailed past his legs. Tumbling into the ground a down-strike with one hand launched him upwards in a arc before he landed smoothly on his feet a few yards away. '_Alright Ranma, stay calm, she's never seen you as a guy before.'_

"Where is your identifier?" Anko slunk towards him slowly.

"Identifier?" Was she talking about those silly forehead things? "Listen, I'm not a ninja, I'm just passing through on my way to Konoha."

Anko tapped a kunai against her thigh. "You were just 'passing through' the Forest of Death, with a jump like that, and you say you're not a ninja?"

"Uhm, I was very athletic as a child?" Plan B, Plan B! "Hey, how about we grab a bite to eat?" Ranma smiled the smile that girls seemed to like, slightly unsettled by the bloodthirsty smile that met him in return. '_I hope she doesn't notice I'm not wearing shoes...'_

"Aren't you the charmer. Sure, why not." '_Those kids can handle themselves in the woods. If they're going to be Chuunin there's no need to baby them, right?' _thought Anko. '_Besides, after our date I can bring him to Ibiki. Great time-saving technique, Anko-san!'_ "Come on then, I know a good place to eat."

Racing after Anko as she ran at a surprisingly rapid pace Ranma had a few troublesome thoughts come to mind. There was some coins in the pockets of the clothes he had, err, borrowed, but they didn't seem like very much. Admittedly he didn't really know how the money system worked around here, but on the off chance he was able to return that guy's stuff he probably wouldn't want too much of the money missing. Added to that was the vague recollection that by asking Anko to eat with him he might be required to pay for the meal... "Hey Anko-san, how about some Ramen for lunch?"

Gesturing for the guards to let him through, Anko stopped just inside the the walls. Ranma skidded to a stop beside her, dust flying. "Dango!"

'_She's rather intense about dango... almost reminds me of Ukyo and okonomiyaki.' "_Well, I'm a bit short on cash..."

"Cash?"

"You know, money." Ranma leaned backwards, hands in his pockets as he avoided making eye contact with her.

"I see..." '_Maybe torture before lunch after all.' _With a sigh she led him to Ichiraku's Ramen. That run had worked off most of that snack she'd just finished and she'd be damned if she'd torture someone on an empty stomach!

"I'll be with you in just a moment!" said a pretty brown-haired girl as she disappeared into the back. Taking a seat at the booth, Ranma carefully kept his eyes off Anko as she sat down beside him. In sitting, her jacket had pulled apart slightly, revealing more of her fishnet shirt and quite visible black bra. '_This,' _thought Ranma, '_will definitely end badly for me, somehow or another.' "_Sorry for the wait, you two. My name's Ayame, what can I get you?"

"I'll take the squid," said Anko.

"Uhm, how much will this get me?" Ranma dropped all the coins from his stolen jacket out onto the table.

"Three deluxe bowls," responded Ayame as Anko began to stare at him. '_Where have I seen that jacket before?'_

"Only three? Alright then, can I get chicken, beef, and pork?"

"Coming right up." Ayame smiled, continually amazed at the large appetites some ninjas had.

"So," said Anko, "what brings you to Konoha?"

"Just looking for work," he replied, touching his ear discreetly to make sure it was still where it should be. "I might go traveling again once I manage to pick up some money." _'Will I?'_ he wondered. It had certainly been the pattern for much of his life. Even during his moderately long stay in Nerima he'd still spent much of his time on trips to various places, and it had hardly instilled in him any obsession with home owning. To be truthful, it felt like there was a whole new world at his fingertips, waiting for him to grasp it. He might try and find his way back home someday, but for now it was a wonderfully sunny day without a raincloud in the sky and he planned to make the most of it. Even if he hadn't been at full power at the time, that perverted toad freak had beaten him, and Ranma Saotome didn't lose! Well, not permanently. There had to be dozens, maybe hundreds of different fighting styles and techniques to learn in this world, and if he had to spend his life traveling to learn them all then he'd travel gladly. After all, these days another town was probably just a days flight away, nothing compared to the arduous multi-day swim across the sea to reach China he had gone through with his father. However, while having worthy challengers again was rather stimulating, some of them were just a bit too hot-blooded for him to deal with at the moment. No, at least for the moment he was no longer the big fish in the pond. A year or two of laying low and then with a little luck and a lot of skill he'd be able to take anything the authority's threw at him.

Anko still seemed to be musing over his answer as the meals came out.

"Itadakimasu!" With that the two dug in.

'_Wow,'_ thought Ayame. All three bowls in front of Ranma had been swept clean just as Anko hit the halfway point in her much, much smaller bowl of squid ramen. "I can't believe it, but I think you managed that even quicker than Naruto."

Ranma stiffened. '_I know that name.'_ "Do you know him, by chance?" '_Please, please stop,' _Ranma silently begged. Every word was like a knife, twisting open memories of that broken body, blood-covered skin, the agonized wail of Sakura, poor Sakura, as she felt her friend die. "I'll have to tell him about you if you don't, he'll want to reestablish his eating record as soon possible.

Ranma's fell backwards, the force of his landing so miniscule that his conscious mind didn't even register it. "It wasn't my fault," he whispered. '_I couldn't have known. I was just trying to set me and Saya free, no one deserves to die in a cage like that.' _Anko, while confused, knew this was something she couldn't ignore. Summoned snakes curled out of her sleeve, stretching towards their target. Ranma reacted violently, aura flaring purple and red in fear and rage. The wild, uncontrolled pulse cratered the ground beneath him, dust flying out in all directions even as Anko went flying through the wall of Ichiraku's Ramen. With one mournful look at the cowering Ayame, Ranma took off to lose himself among the many alleyways of Konoha. Just barely breaching the encroaching circle of ANBU before they tightened in on the area, Ranma ducked and weaved past crates, laundry, people, and the occasional fence as he worked his way through the town. Moving on instinct as he scanned for power signatures he steadily lengthened the gap between himself and the largest sources of energy. But there was so many! Ranma inwardly marveled at it, trying to sort between stationary targets and the ones hunting him. '_How can there be so many?'_ Despite all the people in his world, the fighters capable of beating Shampoo inside these walls alone probably outnumbered all those in Japan. Battle was not a dying art here, but a way of life. If he could just get enough of a lead on them he might be ale to calm down enough to use the Umisenken, but the web grew ever tighter as he was forced to double back from dead alleys. He didn't dare tempt the exposure of taking to air when it seemed practically everyone over the age of ten felt it a great pastime to go roof-hopping.

A blast of water splashed into his face as a woman watering her balcony-grown plants dropped her water pitcher. Hit by the change just as s/he left the ground her body was launched into uncontrolled flight. Pants streamed off her much smaller form even as she sought to free her head from the suddenly massive cavern of her shirt. Finally managing the feat, her eyes snapped wide open just as she landed in the dumpster. "Blech." Tripping on the hem of the jacket as she stood, Ranma immediately fell face-forward back into the festering mire of garbage. Hand planted in a rotten banana, Ranma unsteadily made her way to her feet. "What the hell is going on here!" her voice was squeaky and unfamiliar. Her hands came within a centimeter of clapping onto her mouth before she remembered what was on them. Instead they moved to her hood, flipping it up to cover her fox ears uncomfortably as several masked ninja jumped from the building above her to land beside her fallen pants. Few words passed between them and Ranma was deadly curious as she vainly struggled on tiptoes to peer over the the edge of the dumpster, coming up several inches short.

"Hey I think I found something." A squirrel-masked creep peered into the dumpster as Ranma squeaked and fell onto her butt.

"What'cha got?"

"A three year old," he replied as he grabbed Ranma by her heel, lifting her from the trash. Ranma forced herself not to struggle too hard as she kept both her hand on her jacket and shirt to keep them from falling as she hung upside down, ki carefully confined.

"Put me down!" Ranma solemnly swore to herself to kick this guy's ass later. Even if he did get her out of the garbage that she was three seconds away from incinerating with a ki-blast, no doubt blowing her cover.

"Jeeze, Squirrel, you really should stop treating little kids like animals."

"She was certainly rooting around like one in that garbage."

"Enough." The third ninja spoke firmly, in a voice not to be ignored. "Take her to the orphanage and come back quickly, we still need to catch that boy."

"Understood." Said three year old rattled off an impressive number of swears as he hopped from roof to roof towards the orphanage. '_That's street living for you,'_ he thought idly.

()()

End Chapter 6.

Owe. My head hurts. Was up writing this past dawn. Anyways... surprise! Plot Device no Jutsu! Actually there's good reasoning behind it but I don't feel like talking about the physics behind it at the moment. This story has officially broken 10,000 hits and thus I proudly announce the following: From henceforth, minimum chapter size (including this chapter (: ) is now 2000 words rather than 1500. I wonder how many other people spend their spring break writing fanfiction. This chapter tops the story off at 10,000 words and I think I only started this fic about 10 days ago. P.S. Ranma is now two and a half feet tall, and smiley faces inside parentheticals are probably unwise... P.P.S I just started writing a book so the next chapter might be a little while.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto/Ranma

Chapter 7:

Dangling upside down as she was, Ranma was rather understandably enraged. The sudden regression to an apparent three years of age wasn't doing anything good for her temper either. Still, after dropping into the Soul of Ice Ranma felt she was hiding her blazing temper rather well.

Then again, maybe not. "Strange, where's this chill coming from," remarked Squirrel. "It couldn't be, right? There's no way a little brat like you could have an Ice bloodline limit." Ranma's Soul of Ice flared once more before she was able to calm herself. "No way... Agh. More work. Now I have to take you to the Hokage. I hope you're appreciative of all the effort I've put in for you."

Ranma spent a few crucial seconds debating the best way to make him beg for forgiveness before realizing she was already entering the Hokage Tower. '_Shit. Guess I'll have to bluff my way out.'_

Some number of pleasantries later, Squirrel had managed to acquire an audience with Sarutobi, chibified Ranma in tow. After a short explanation of the situation, Sarutobi turned towards what in his eyes was a sweet little girl and potential asset to the village. "Aren't you feeling a little stuffy in that jacket? Why not take off your hood, at least?"

Sleeves dangling from her tiny hands she wrapped her arms across her chest. '_Well at least if this is permanent it'll be a few years before a certain set of twins start getting in the way again.' _Doing her best to look pitiful Ranma replied, "But I'm cold..." Ranma knew in a second that she had him. '_Sucker. Good thing this jacket is thick enough to hold down my ears.' _She felt them twitch again, stubbornly fighting the fabric.

"Hmm..." Sarutobi puffed a smoke ring towards the ceiling. "I suppose at this age she might have trouble controlling her bloodline limit. Squirrel, take her to the hospital and have a Hyuuga examine her. And make sure she's settled in an orphanage." Flashing a set of hand signals as he spoke he also informed the Anbu agent it would be best to wait a year before enrolling her in the academy.

Dismissed, Squirrel proceeded to carry Ranma in a slightly more respectable manner. Namely, like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. Taking a leaf out of Genma's book of shogi plays, Ranma took advantage of the man the moment they entered the alley. "Watch out! There's someone behind you!" The man, twirling, swiftly ate the dust as Ranma rolled up her sleeve and struck the man in pressure points along his spine, instantly knocking him out. "Dumbass." Ranma smeared her still garbage-encrusted hand on his nose before running off as fast as her little legs could take her, ki sheathing her now uncallused feet as she sped through the back alleys of Konoha. Where she was going exactly wasn't something she'd quite figured out, but for now 'away' would have to do.

Slipping past the encroaching ring of ninjas heading towards the downed Squirrel, Ranma briefly marveled at how easily she had escaped. Her success was not to last, however, for there was a certain population in Konoha far fiercer than ninjas – furry little hell beasts. Yes, the cats of Konoha were even worse than those of Ranma's home world. With the advent of nin-dogs the cats had been forced to improve themselves. Stronger, faster, and eager for the hunt, they could sense the weakness in the little fox child. They pounced. "MREEOW!"

Thus it was that an hour later neko-Ranma was happily prancing through the sewers, racing along walls and crocodile heads with equal ease. Neko-Ranma was quite enthused about her new ears, ears fitting for a proper cat. The smaller size of her body was quite a curious thing but it allowed her to easily burrow through walls with her ki-claws. Still, as she tunneled her way to the surface and took to the trees she couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't something missing. A tail perhaps? Neko-Ranma wasn't a deep thinker, but a curious idea had come to mind. Her body wasn't it used to be, but if her ears and size could change then why not something else? She could almost feel it, a subtle energy in her body just waiting to take physical form...

* * *

><p>A month later neko-Ranma was licking herself clean after devouring a freshly caught raw fish. Her tail flicked around playfully as she glanced at the Hokage monument in the distance. It was strange, but Neko-Ranma was beginning to feel bored. It was a new sensation for her, and a rather unwelcome one. Perhaps it was time to go back inside and let the Other play. The world was less intense inside, but the world there was always changing, one thing morphing into the next.<p>

A giant snake rose above the walls of Konoha and neko-Ranma's lips curled in a feline grin. Perhaps she would play a little while longer.

* * *

><p>"Where am I?" Ranma found himself sprawled on the ground in a half demolished house, a now empty tea kettle sitting on his head.<p>

"Did you see that? What was that thing. I swear it sounded like a cat but it almost looked human."

A girls voice came next, soft and ragged from exhaustion. "I think it went this way. Do you think it's on our side? It looked like it was just playing with the snake for awhile there, but how powerful could it possibly be?"

"The enemy of my enemy..." The third voice was a boys, and Ranma was left wondering why all these voices were so familiar. Dipping into his ki sense Ranma was curious why his chakra stores were so low, but thankfully the three approaching him now were even weaker. Their power source, chakra? was diffuse, as if they were so exhausted they could barely maintain their hold on it.

'_Why am I naked?' _The trio reached the corner in his distraction and he swiftly held the teakettle in front of himself so as to protect his modesty.

"Hey! That's the guy who stole my pants and my favorite jacket!"

'_What was his name again? Kiba?' _Ranma blurred in their eyes as he swept forward, once more disrobing the fellow of his oddly ragged clothing. '_Looks like he just got into a knife fight.' _Spinning back from their awkward attacks to stand behind the kitchen counter Ranma swiftly put on his stolen clothes, dodging shurikens as he did so. "Err, sorry about this dog boy." Grabbing a shuriken and kunai from the air he quickly drilled into into the throwing-star's side before gently flipping it back.

As he jumped out the window he could hear Kiba shouting behind him. "What the hell is this! I.O.U.? Who does this punk think he is!"

Ranma swept silently through the battered town, marveling at the destruction. '_Man, what happened? The last thing I remember is c-cats.'_

* * *

><p>Saya was truly impressed. The humans had really outdone themselves with this jutsu. Normally human techniques were impossible to cast for tailed beasts. Yoki was simply incompatible, too wild to be so restrained. This, on the other hand, seemed not to have been built for humans at all. Saya had been entranced with the possibilities ever since she first watched Naruto perform the technique. Foolish human that it was, it would have killed him from the start if she hadn't been healing the damage constantly. But for her, things were different. The possibilities were endless.<p>

With a nod Saya sent off the thirty clones to perform their duties. Each had about the same level of chakra as the average genin. It wasn't much, but for now it was all she could spare. In any case, it would be enough to defeat any number of simple villagers before the ninjas even knew what was happening. It would certainly confuse the trackers she had no doubt picked up by now, and give her a chance to rest while still fulfilling her mission.

Yes, it had taken awhile to perfect the technique, but now it was all worth it. While she relaxed in the Land of Fire, her clones could scour Wave, the last area she had seen her savior. With her help she could wrest control of the other half of her chakra from the Shinigami and start the eradication of the human race in earnest...

Authors Notes:

For anyone interested, my book just hit the 50 page mark. Not entirely sure what number of pages I'm shooting for at the moment.

Also, what's up with no one reading my Ranma + Zombies fanfic. 20,000 hits on this and 200 read that? Alas, it seems I should have stuck a random Naruto character in there to attract viewers.

A little note of apology, this chapter only ended up being 1500 words. Think of it as an intermission, I suppose, as I come up with a plot for the second half. Quite frankly I know very little of the canon plot post time skip so... ya... I don't think there's actually going to be a time skip for this story. Which, quite possibly, leaves me with even more questions to answer.

I hope everyone liked neko-Ranma-chan. I felt one of the reviewers was right in that there's a notable lack of motivation for Ranma to be in Konoha. There is some, mind you, but I felt this was a nice baseball to the face for Manda. Metaphorically, of course. I suspect he will be quite angry for being beat up by a child.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

The destruction was unbelievable. Whole swaths of buildings lay in wreckage, even the Hokage monument didn't escape unscathed. Ranma had decided to hide in plain sight, blending in with the civilians as they came back from the evacuation centers. Ranma was no stranger to destruction, but now he was seeing another side of it as he watched survivors weep over broken homes and livelihoods. Not all of citizens of Konoha had gotten through whatever it was that had attacked the village unharmed, either. He watched, transfixed, as a squad of ninjas pulled bodies from a pool. What truly shocked him was how they did it. '_They're walking on water?' _It felt disrespectful to be thinking of new techniques amidst all this tragedy but the acquisition of new abilities had long become an irrepressible habit. Waterwalking would come later, but for now the sight had just given him an idea.

Ki techniques were often about finesse but Ranma had plenty of ki to spare. Fine tuning it to take as little ki as possible could come later. Forming a cloud of explosive ki beneath one foot before refining it into a solid, frictionless blade. '_Just like ice skating and it doesn't take even a tenth as much energy as my hover technique. It can't be this easy, can it?' _ Thinking it over it wasn't all that hard to believe. There were only a few hundred people back on Earth that had the necessary control to form such a ki-construct. And of those, there were probably only a small handful for whom such a technique wouldn't cost more ki than it was worth. But for Ranma, well, he could already see dozens of possibilities where it would be of use, particularly fighting that stupid toad summoning pervert. Brimming with confidence formed a blade beneath his other foot and pushed off. It wasn't until he found himself skating uncontrollably into a small pond that remembered a very important detail: He was terrible at ice skating.

* * *

><p>Sakura let her hand drift through the the sudden shaft of sunlight that had illuminated her cell, dust floating down from the new skylight. It was a nice enough cell, as these things went. A comfortable bed and couch, plenty of food and water, but it was still a cell. And she'd been imprisoned in it for a very long time. '<em>Is this a trick?' <em>Ever so cautiously she climbed the wall, chakra adhering her hands to its surface as she made her way to the sudden break in the stone ceiling. Like a mouse from a hole she peered out at the devastated landscape. '_It can't be.' _She was at a loss as to what could have caused such damage to the powerful Hidden Village of the Leaf. "My parents..." It was so hard to care about anything anymore. No one had talked to her during the time she'd been in the cell, as far as she could tell no one had even looked at her. She hoped it was because they were ashamed, embarrassed that they imprisoned a fellow shinobi of the Leaf solely to protect the secret of the Kyuubi's release. Why would they not reveal it? To not cause a panic? People should be panicking, they should be running for their lives, she'd seen the unstoppable power of the demon fox with her own eyes. '_That must be it, the Kyuubi must have attacked. I'm surprised she left any of it standing.'_

Sakura looked down at herself, at her worn and tattered cheongsam, at the red scales that extended from wrist to elbow, larger and denser that the scattered pale scales on her face. Her hair, once pure pink, was now intermixed with crimson threads of not-quite-hair. Considering henging before moving any farther into the open Sakura wondered just who she could pretend to be, and if it would even matter. Her own parents would have trouble recognizing her as even the shape of her face had changed, grown thin and angular, ears slightly pointed and tinted blue at the tips. She wouldn't blame them, she was having trouble recognizing her self. Before it had always been Inner Sakura, that repository all her strong emotions and hopes. Now Inner Sakura had gone silent, leaving her all alone. She wasn't sure when it had happened, when Inner had left or died or gone to sleep, but she thought she knew the cause. She'd had nothing to do to distract herself but play with chakra. Slowly her reserves had built as she threaded chakra around and through her being, faster and faster in designs ever more complex until her conscious mind couldn't fully process it but still the patterns kept growing. Something she'd done had triggered the mutation, something she'd done had killed her mental companion.

Sakura suspected that wasn't all that Inner had been to her. She'd never really thought about her until she was gone but now Sakura had to wonder if she had been wrong about which of them existed first. This hollow feeling that plagued her, a real person didn't feel this way, did they? Inner had always been so full of life, outspoken and always sure of what she wanted. In comparison Sakura felt like a wooden mask, playing at life rather than living it. When had she started acting this way? When did her existence become so pointless? The memories were hazy but she thought she knew the truth: Sasuke. It was always Sasuke. It felt like her whole life had revolved around him, like everything before she met him was just a dream. Was it just because she had been so young or was that all it was, a dream, an artificial construct given to her by Inner. Perhaps all she was was a puppet, a pretty doll meant to behave and capture Sasuke's love. Thinking back, it was really only when she'd let Inner shine through that she'd had any real fire for other things, for her competition with Ino or her frustration with the now deceased Naruto. If it was true, if that was all she was, what would happen next? With Sasuke dead, would she find another purpose, or would hse just crumble like the overused mask she was. Would she leave behind a lifeless, comatose body, or would some new mask to take her place as if she'd never been.

Sakura wasn't sure, but she did know one thing: It was high time to leave the cell.

* * *

><p>"I'll never be forgiven for this," said Sarutobi, resting on his back as Tsunade slowly healed him.<p>

"Hush, Sensei, you did what you thought was right."

"I prevented two of the past protectors of this village from from ever seeing the afterlife again, and I wasn't even able to stop Orochimaru."

"Things could have been handled better," said Jiraiya. "Reports are already coming in of refugees from Wave at the border. It's gone, all evidence of human habitation has been ripped from its surface. You can't keep the Kyuubi's release a secret any longer."

"I'm too old for this Jiraiya, you should take the position, the village needs a strong leader at a time like this." Jiraiya responded to the Sandaime's plea only with silence, pulling Tsunade with him into the hallway as he left the hospital room.

"Will he recover?"

Tsunade hesitated. "He'll live, but his chakra will never recover to the level it was. Chuunin level is probably the best we can hope for at this point."

Jiraiya's fingers twitched, anxious to pen another novel of Icha Icha to distract himself. "I need to think. I'll be back soon, don't worry." With that he leapt out the window, leaving Tsunade to tend the Sandaime alone.

* * *

><p>Ranma-chan was currently wet and miserable. If being two and a half feet tall and utterly swallowed by a previously well-fitting stolen jacket wasn't bad enough, somehow she had acquired a tale. Not only was the blasted thing nigh uncontrollable and slightly painful from being hemmed in by the jacket, it also refused to dry out. It was times like these when Ranma wished she had invented a better and less flashy method of drying off than detonating a ball of ki directly on top of herself. As it was, even that option was denied to her as she stumbled on unfamiliar feet through the broken streets. Any explosion at this point would probably bring dozens of cranky ninjas down on her, something she could ill afford at the moment given her low ki-stores and nonexistent reach. '<em>I'm actually starting to <em>_wonder if this place is worse than Nerima. There's got to be some other place on this planet to learn techniques from.' _Ranma gave a fist pump, sleeve flailing in her face as she did so. "It's decided, I fly out of here tomorrow!"

"Oye, kiddo, what are you doing outside the safe zone?"

Ranma looked up, then up again, knowing who it had to be but unable to believe her luck could be this poor. '_Anko.' _Staring a little to hard into her light brown eyes it took Ranma a moment to notice her hoods falling back over her fox ears that were folding back against her head. "Umm, it's not what you think?" Her busy red and white tail chose this moment to curl up through the back of her collar and swish traitorously around her neck.

End chapter 8:

Alright, chapter 8. Next chapter I may have to bring in Itachi and Kisame.

Anyways, good news, I published a 23,000 word novella for Amazon Kindle, title is Unstable Ground by Laira Evans. It's a first person POV of a female rookie cop who is slowly becoming a vampire. Please give it a try for 99 cents, it helps pay for the ramen packages I subsist off of. P.S. Unlike this fanfic, the story actually has a plot I made up in advance, and edits from more than an outdated spellchecker system.

Errata for chapter 7: Ranma refers to his ki as chakra, this was a typo. Similarly, Saya calls her yoki chakra. Also a typo.


	9. Chapter 9

At long last, after the previous attempt was destroyed along with my poor unfortunate laptop, thou art presented with Chapter 9:

_Ranma looked up, then up again, knowing who it had to be but unable to believe her luck could be this poor. '___Anko.' ___Staring a little to hard into her light brown eyes it took Ranma a moment to notice her hoods falling back over her fox ears that were folding back against her head. "Umm, it's not what you think?" Her bushy red and white tail chose this moment to curl up through the back of her collar and swish traitorously around her neck._

* * *

><p>"It's strange," said Anko, drawing a kunai across her lips, "but you're remarkably cute for demon-spawn." Her foxy prize took this as an invitation to flee. "Maah, why do they always run?" She really was cute, little fangs poking out as she talked. Anko decided she'd only summon paralytic snakes with iddy-biddy fangs to keep from scarring the poor tyke. Then again, perhaps she'd just use rope after all. Quick feet or not, the little three-year-old kyuubi brat was no match for her speed, especially with that absurd ankle-length jacket hampering her movements.<p>

Still, there was definitely something else curious about that jacket. She could have sworn she'd seen it before. '_Damn, I really need to stop drinking.'_

* * *

><p>Saya stretched on the moss of the cave she had claimed, claws curving out one by one to rake the rock. The last clone had dispelled, its memories of cleansing the so-called Land of Wave of the wretched infestation of humans a balm to her troubled nerves. With half her chakra still bound by the Shinigami, there was still very little she could do if the humans banded against her. That said, there was one discovery a clone had made that gave her hope for the future. Locals had called them sea-lions, wondrously clever and playful little creatures. With a few centuries of tinkering with their genetics she could probably give them true sentience and have them start up a civilization. It would give her something to watch when she got bored, and hopefully they'd have the good sense to not travel too far inland like these treacherous apes.<p>

After all, what species with any sense would make a deal with the Shinigami, a creature whose only purpose was to destroy all life.

* * *

><p>Sakura slipped through the wreckage like a ghost. Waves of chakra from sensor nin slipped over her, unseeing, as she took advantage of the chaos. A backpack came first, then clothes. Seals came next, explosive and storage seals mostly, as well as a few she didn't recognize. Food and weapons to channel into the storage seals were almost an afterthought as she reached the outskirts of the village.<p>

She turned back once to look at Konoha as she went to leave it for the last time. Sadly, she felt nothing.

* * *

><p>Orochimaru was... displeased. If he hadn't been somewhat used to being an armless snake already, that emotion might have been far stronger after Sarutobi sealed his arms. He had accomplished very little of what he had set out to do, and it seemed that Sasuke's eyes were lost forever. As impossible as it was to believe, Sarutobi had apparently grown so senile and softhearted as to let the Kyuubi escape its prison far from an area where it could be contained.<p>

But not all had gone wrong, in the end. Even with the unexpected appearance of that devil-child that prevented Manda in his task of distracting Jiraiya, he had still made off with Sand's ultimate weapon. A Jinchuuriki was at last his to experiment with. He had experimented with many flavors of chakra before, but yoki opened a whole new world of possibilities. The coming weeks would be interesting indeed.

* * *

><p>"Anko, I thought when you said you were bringing in the kitsune you meant the busty one."<p>

"What happened to the old man, I'm not talking with this super-pervert." Ranma dodged a playful swat from Anko.

"Mind your manners, brat, this pervert is the new Hokage."

"But look at his secretary, she's ridiculous. Where did he even find someone that looks like that?"

Anko bent towards Ranma's ear, "Kid, shut up if you want to live. Tsunade can kill you with a flick of her finger."

"Neat."

"So," started Jiraiya, "what are you then? Any relation to the Kyuubi?"

"Saya's just an acquaintance. But there's really no point in talking to you. You won't believe me anyways and at the end of this you're just going to throw me in a prison cell, ne?"

"That's where you're wrong champ." Ranma grimaced as he left his chair to lay his hand around her neck. "You're free to go, more or less. Unless you have some parents you'd care to admit to you can go to the orphanage or, if you prefer, tag along with Team Guy. If you're useful, you should be able to afford your own apartment." He kneeled in front of her, but counting his hair he was still twice her height, much to her chagrin. She resisted the urge to punch him.

"Fine, I'll take the second option."

"Wonderful! Anko, be a dear and get her settled in."

* * *

><p>Tsunade stabbed a pen through the desk. "Jiraiya, are you crazy? You're just going to let her walk around? You can't trust Gai for a long-term mission like this, and the little one's sister or whoever she was made a laughing stock of ANBU. It's vital we keep her as a hostage if the Kyuubi comes back, just in case that demon feels anything for her kin."<p>

"Relaaaax. I put a tracking seal on her. If she escapes and goes to 'Saya', as she called her, then we may have a chance of sealing the Kyuubi before her killing spree goes any further. It's no good saving the village if the entire Land of Fire falls. And if she stays, well, she's still young enough to be influenced by the kindness of strangers. 

* * *

><p>End Chapter 9:<p>

Just a teaser, I know. I had some really stupid plot ideas for this story, so this chapter was my way of setting a new path – preparing the way, so to speak. For the record, everything in Naruto that takes place after the Chuunin exams will be considered non-canon. Expect an entirely new plot, and maybe a few changes to characters. When I started writing this I still thought Orochimaru was behind setting the Kyuubi free at Naruto's birth and that the Yondaime's name was Kazama Arashi or whatnot.

Jiraiya feels a little ooc... but he'll have to do. Blame it on taking up the reins of power.

If anyone was curious about the novella, I spent the last year doubling its length. Now officially a novel, I should be putting it out in a few days (with a new title). More information will come in the next chapter.


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